PINs don't have to be 4 digits. I use a smart card for login at work, and the PINs are required to be at least 8 digits long. The system 2-factor. The PIN is a something I know. The smart card is something I have. The PIN essentially verifies the smart card, and then the certificates on the smart card, which are much higher security, are used for everything else.

If you want heated seats, it isn't that hard to get power to them via a switch that you install. In some cases, it may be possible to use the factory switch if it's sending signals over CAN or another network.

Or pull the fuse to the telematics module. I've seen several car repair videos where they do that to stop a large parasitic draw when the module goes bad. It will set a permanent code, but it isn't the type of code that causes the idiot lights to come on.

But the metadata isn't encrypted afaik. That's often more revealing than the message content. For example, if all I have is sender and receiver, I can start building relationship maps or org charts. The number of interactions between sender and receiver can indicate the importance of the relationship. If I have time stamps, I can start building a pattern of life.

Look up eLORAN. This has been studied thoroughly before, and the conclusion was develop eLORAN. The Coast Guard is going to have a heart attack though.

There's a new version called eLORAN. It meets Stratum I timing requirements like GPS but is terrestrial based, high power, and low frequency. Basically the opposite of GNSS. eLORAN stations can be treated like pseudolites due to the precision timing, and instead of doing time difference for hyperbolic navigation it's very similar to pseudorange calculations like GNSS. So you don't need LORAN chains like before.

This has been looked at extensively before. The conclusion was to develop an eLORAN system. But someone in DoT had a stick up their butt and kept killing it. I think Collins even developed prototype avionics tying eLORAN, GNSS, and INS together. eLORAN even meets Stratum I timing requirements like GNSS. Interesting bit of trivia. Before the Coast Guard decommissioned LORAN-C, cell towers had LORAN-C receivers as a timing backup to GNSS

The article mentions the need for data manipulation languages. Wasn't COBOL designed for this? We keep saying COBOL needs to die, but does it? Maybe it just needs to modernize.

This used to happen. But the Democrats decided they really wanted the 16th Amendment. You've got to lie in the bed you make.

Cold kills far more people than heat. Thank you for pointing out this step in the right direction.

In science and engineering, we use many different tools to get work done including Excel, Matlab, C/C++, etc without formal training. The answer can't be, we need a CS guy or gal on every project and the lifecycle of the product needs to be formally managed.

I reminded of a song from the 80s called Every Breath You Take by The Police. I'm not a biologist, but I think every breath they take expels CO2 into the atmosphere. Will they take this to the logical conclusion and end their own lives to save the planet? Yeah, I didn't think so. Rules for thee but not for me.

I mentioned slashdot to a friend the other day. He said, that's still around? Slashdot is a shell of its former self.

People are horrible at understanding risk. Just about anything will kill you. Everytime one of these studies is published, including anything climate related, they should be required to put it into perspective. But many scientists and engineers don't even understand risk. If there's one rule of thumb that is probably universal, everything in moderation. And I'm terms of overall health outcomes, eat healthy and exercise. Eating junk and not exercising is by far the bigger problem than a little alcohol.

Complains about fossil fuels destroying the earth. Then rapes the earth to get a few ounces of rare earths while claiming to protect the environment.